One Bad Apple Part Deux:

The Hoax I did have a couple of other articles ready but this had to be vented...

It's bad enough (re: our last article on someone in "the field" making us all look bad) that some researchers/ghost hunters and assorted thrill seekers make it damnably difficult to be taken seriously by the normal "establishment" but as of today and, to the HONEST best of my knowledge, no one in this province (Ontario) who refers to themselves as such has ever attempted to perpetrate a knowing hoax.

That changed as of last night.

One group, who shall remain nameless, who basically does fly in the face of pretty much all established safety, legal and research protocols had posted on their site a poor double-Photo-Shop-Exposure and tried to pass it off as a genuine full-body apparition. This hoax was caught and the ORIGINAL image of the woman that was the apparition was found by the folks at Haunted Hamilton who sent this to all the respective researchers in the province.

Details, if still available, are situated here.

Without realizing it, this hoaxing group have not only completely damaged their own standing in the community (to which, apparently, they don't seem to care about that) but also, because NOW people can say "Why should we TRUST 'ghost researchers' when they have been known to pull hoaxes and proclaim them true?", it will be even more difficult to get the permission and respect needed to perform certain types of investigations and work.

I cannot stress something any more clearly... ONE BAD APPLE DOES SPOIL IT FOR ALL OF US!

This group, with their nonsense, has given ammunition to the debunkers, sceptdebunkers, non-believers and generally anti-ghost people in the province.

Hoaxing might be funny and maybe the person involved is having a good laugh (sadly, I do believe they were hoping for something other than a laugh) but the damage, as usual, is done. Thanks, as I often say, for nothing.

This group, no matter what, will be persona(s) non gratis pretty much anywhere in the realm of ghosts and hauntings research.

Call this venting but also see it for what it truly is... Although there are many camps in the world of paranormal research, we do, despite our differences, try to respect each others work, if nothing else. When someone betrays that trust, it's a given that they will find themselves very quickly on the outside looking in. I've never met a truly unfriendly person in this field here but I can certainly say that from what I've already seen, read, been e-mailed and all, they WILL turn on someone who's trying to pull a "fast one" pretty darned quick and that's a good thing, really!

Please also read:

Phraseology
Scepticism
Research by Proclamation

Editor's Change/Addition: Paranormal research "...is beset by True Believers ('They must be, therefore they are!') and True Unbelievers ('They can't be, therefore they aren't!') Rare are those who pursue evidence wherever it may lead, no matter how the results may square with their cherished hopes and dreams. Ironically, both the TBists and the TUists see themselves as champions of objective analysis and critical thinking, when in fact they are defenders of their respective faiths and, not incidentally, their egos."